


Abandonment Issues (And How to Exacerbate Them)

by GayFrankensteinsMonster



Category: The Adventure Zone (Podcast)
Genre: Character Study, During Canon, Gen, Light Angst, Serious Injuries
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2017-01-22
Updated: 2017-01-22
Packaged: 2018-09-19 05:41:06
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,055
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/9421031
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/GayFrankensteinsMonster/pseuds/GayFrankensteinsMonster
Summary: A study on the great, not-yet-late Merle Highchurch, his track record with families, and a slight, small change of heart.





	

**Author's Note:**

> i'd kick merle in his fuckin ribs if i could

Some are born great. Others achieve greatness. Others are dragged kicking and screaming into greatness, and fight tooth and nail to be freed from that responsibility. 

Merle, of course, is the third category. He was good at running. It kept him out of fights as a kid, left him more time to himself. It got him out of an arranged marriage and two kids. It got him out of some pretty bad fights during his time as an adventurer. But he was getting old. Had to stop running at some point. 

The three of them- Four of them popped open the pocket workshop for a quick break, needing to take some time to themselves. Magnus was discussing something with Cam in hushed tones, sitting with his back towards Merle. Taako was slumped in a chair, legs stretched in front of him as he leaned against the table behind him. He'd been carried in by Magnus, who had claimed it was just to prevent him from tracking blood on the floor. It had been a joke, but when Magnus smiled it didn't reach his eyes. They were all tired. Merle approached Taako carefully, like one might approach an easily-spooked horse. 

“Hey, buddy. You want me to patch those up for you?” 

“What, I- I'd fuckin’ love it, my man, but you heard them. I'm not gonna take any more of that necrotic attack shit, I hated that.” Taako shifted in his seat, wincing and hissing. Most of the blood was just cuts and scrapes. Nothing major, no bones poking out of his skin, no severed limbs. Merle kneeled down in front of him and rolled up Taako’s torn legging, carefully, carefully. He got a few whimpers of pain when he brushed over a bruise, paused, stopped wholly. 

“No magic. I just think your- I think your legs are broken, I'm gonna splint ‘em if that's okay.”

“Yeah, I'd hate for you to actually _ heal  _ something. Using your  _ spells.  _ Why break a winning streak, right?” Merle flicked his finger against Taako’s ankle and heard him yelp, before huffing. “Whatever, I'm joking. Sensitive old man.”

He went back to it, picking through his pack for bandages and tape. Magnus had more than enough wood in here, finding splints wasn't hard. Taako kept a hand pressed against his hip as Merle looked for something suitable to patch him up, watching him with narrowed eyes. When Merle returned, Taako wiped his mouth with the back of his hand. 

“They're gonna make us try and sell each other out, y’know.”

“How’d you figure that?” 

Taako motioned at Cam, fingers waving lazily. His ears were flat against the side of his head, flicking downwards when Merle jostled his legs too hard. 

“Look at that guy. He got fucked over. If I was just a head I'd be bitching all the time. Portable suffering generator. Like a magic-eight ball full of shit.”

“Yeah, maybe you're right.”

They sat in silence for another few moments. Merle was careful, careful popping bones back into place and stopping whenever Taako started hissing and clawing at the table. It hurt. God, it looked like it hurt. The whole deal was shitty. But he couldn't help but wonder, selfishly, who'd gotten it the worst? A pinky and a decade weren't things you could just wave off if you tried enough. An eye and some memories and possessions, yeah, it sucked, sucked pretty bad. Just being a head was probably pretty far down on the shit list. Getting crushed and then weakened substantially, that had to sting. They all had it bad. 

But all things considered, Merle probably had it easiest before they had to spin that wheel a fourth time. He wasn't going to make Magnus do it. Sure as shit wasn't going to make Taako do it. Take one for the team and all that. He set back to work, looping a layer of tape around one of the splints. 

“Hey, Merle?”

“Yeah buddy?”

“They're gonna make us sell each other out, and-” Taako flinched when Merle stood up and dropped his leg to let it hang off the chair again. “I swear to god-  _ your god,  _ specifically, swear to Pan. If you sell us out, if you- If you even think about kicking Magnus and- If you think about it. I will use every last bit of strength in me to strangle you with your own arm.” 

Merle closed his pack back up and looked over at Taako, eyebrows furrowed. Taako’s chest was heaving as he sat himself up straighter, one finger pointed at Merle. He was trying to look intimidating. It didn't work, the chubby cheeks and the fluffy hair and the soft eyes. But he squinted at Merle, ears flat and lip curled. He spoke up, and a speck of blood dotted his lips. 

“If you abandon us, I will hunt you down.” 

He wasn't intimidating. He didn't look intimidating, he didn't look scary or cruel or threatening. He looked…

He looked scared. Shit. Merle wasn't trying to get into anything like this anymore. He wasn't a family man. He was a shitty dad who ran out on his kids because he wanted  _ adventure  _ and  _ something new.  _ He wasn't a good cleric. He wasn't a good person. But here he was, patching up some shitty elf who could barely be called an adult in a goddamn house of horrors while some artificially-old bastard discussed game strategies with a severed head. Shit. 

Merle helped fix Taako’s clothes and sat him up better to take the weight off his bad hip, resting a hand there to support him. Taako relaxed after a moment, squirming slightly out of Merle’s reach. 

“You heard me, right? If you run out on me- On, on us, you're in for a world of hurt, old man.” 

Merle nodded, brushing Taako’s hair out of his face and giving him a kiss to the forehead. 

“I'm not abandoning you.”

Merle wasn't any stranger to lying to people. Wasn't a stranger to petty revenge. He wasn't a good person. But to be frank, maybe none of them were. He didn't have to be good. He had to be better. He could be better, right? For Magnus and Taako especially. 

He'd already run out on one family, couldn't do the same thing to this one. 


End file.
